Inspired by Marina

Hi friends!

My good friend Marina is being CASEd at City Crafter Challenge and of course I did not want to miss the opportunity to CASE her myself. Her card gave me so many ideas, I absolutely loved the layout. Here it is:

I followed Marina's layout and colors but switched up the colors by using brown card base and white, die cut snowflakes (inspired by current CASology: Season... I chose the Christmas season).  Before die cutting the snowflakes I adhered stick it- adhesive to my white card and with the help of that this card took no time at all! I love that stick-it product. :) I used a very simple sentiment by MFT to keep my design CAS, those die cut snowflakes do fill most of the card... But since I have no extra layers and my design is so repetitive and simple, I hope I'm still within CAS! 

The snowflake die is by Joy Crafts. I've been wanting this die for more than 2 years... I had once received one die cut from somewhere, no idea where, and since making one of my all-time favorite Christmas cards with it (photo of that fave card below) I knew I HAVE TO find the die... And after a lot of detective work I now have it! :) 

Anyway friends, I wish you all a happy weekend and a fun May Day if you are celebrating it. Thanks for popping by!

Along with  City Crafter Challenge and CASology I'm entering:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Quick Birthday Card for Challenges

Hi friends! 

Here's a CAS birthday card I made with some challenges in mind:

Less Is More: Stripes

(my 2nd entry)

The Heart Desires: Color Palette

Addicted to CAS: Rainbow

Sugar Pea Designs Challenge: Inspiration Photo

The design in my card is stamped with a PTI border stamp (from the same stamp set than my first card for LIM stripes) and is colored in with Copics. I added a simple stamped sentiment from Concord & 9th. I tried to add sequins and what not but nothing seemed to work so this is one of my no embellies, no nothing cards! The expression "no nothing" comes from a concert hall location where they don't want you to enter one particular door.... There's a sign "no backstage, no exit, no nothing" and it always makes me smile. They really don't want you to go trough that "no nothing" door. :) !

Thanks for popping by! 

Butterflies for Challenges

Hi friends, I hope you have a good Sunday evening!

I'm here to share a CAS card for three fun challenges:

Less Is More: Stripes

Inspired by All the Little Things: photo inspiration

CAS Mix Up: Inlaid die cutting, stamping + your choice (dry embossing, copics). My 2nd entry to this challenge!

I've used a Taylored Expressions embossing folder for creating the stripes in my card base. For the focal point I cut a white circle and stamped PTI butterflies on it. I then cut a black frame where I inlaid the white circle. I think inlaid die-cuts are so good for CAS! Less layers, more CAS, right. :) The butterflies are colored in with Copics and I've also coated them with Wink of Stella. I added white dots with white gel pen to perk up the frame a bit. My usual choice would have been to add a sentiment heat embossed with white powder on black card but I wanted to add some grey to the card (inspired by the silver in the photo inspiration) and I actually really like the outcome! 

Sorry for the shadows in the card (well they do show that I've popped up the circle with foam adhesive!), I had to photograph this in unnatural light. It's late here already. :)

Thanks for popping by and happy new week!

New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

I'm here sharing my DT card for the new Inkspirational Challenge: Graffiti stamping. Very fun technique with overlapping sentiments! Basically you just choose a bunch of sentiment stamps and stamp away using different ink colors and your artistic eye. :) There's wonderful DT samples in the challenge blog. We are also having a new -well, "old"!- DT member, Kylie! I say old because she is re-joining the team after a couple of years break. Welcome back, Kylie! :) 

My card is very self-explanatory. I've first stenciled a very light brick bg and done my stamping on top of it using Hero Arts Neon inks + black Versafine ink. The happy- and for you- stamps are by Hero Arts, the other stamps are from an unknown maker. I did some card layering and added sequins to make my card a bit more interesting. Thanks for popping by, hope you like! 

TIME OUT Challenges Reminder

Hi friends!

Here's my DT card for the current Time Out Challenge where we are inspired by this pretty photo:

STAMPlorations is sponsoring the challenge with two prizes -click HERE for all the challenge details and prize info! I promise you will also be very inspired by all the DT creations and the fantastic work of our guest designer Michelle.  

I was inspired by both of the butterflies in the photo and the color palette of the photo. I used stamps from a STAMPlorations set Trendy Butterflies 2 which might be my new STAMPlorations favorite! I combined it with a sentiment from another set, Balloons and Banners: I love the combined look of the detailed, stunning butterfly and the simple, fun sentiment. After stamping the butterfly on pink card I masked it and stamped some splatters with white pigment ink behind it -I added the detail photo so you could see the splatters better, the photo of the whole card doesn't really show the white ink -and this result I was so so happy with! I might be only stamping with black ink on colored card and using white ink for background from here on. ;) I've used frame dies (W+9) and some clear sequins to finish off the card. 

Thanks for popping by!

I'd like to enter:

STAMPlorations Things With Wings Linky Party

STAMPlorations April Theme Challenge: Wings

STAMPlorations Never-Ending AG Challenge

Spring Card for Challenges

Hi friends! 

I'm here to share a quick CAS card I made using W+9 Hello Sunshine dies, MFT frame die + Uniko sentiment, heat embossed with FANTASTIC Hero Arts white embossing powder. I purchased this embossing powder a couple of weeks ago and I tell you it beats all the other white embossing powders I've ever tried! Fantastic product. My original plan had no embellies, just the die cuts, but I had done bad job parting the cloud dies from their "strings" and the edge of the smaller cloud cut a small hole to my paper. The clear drops came to rescue... One looked a bit lonely so I gave her a friend too. :)

I'm entering:

Less is More : Spring Walk

Today there hasn't come anything from the sky yet but being a dog owner (I have a soon 3 years old schnauzer) I've experienced both rain and snow lately! Finnish spring is very unpredictable. :)

CAS Mix Up: Inlaid Die Cutting

My smaller cloud is inlaid to vary the dimension of the clouds even more. My own choices are "normal die cutting" + heat embossing the stamped sentiment + using clear drops.

a2z Scrapbooking April challenge: Getting to Know You (favorite Hero Arts products)

This white HA embossing powder might me my favorite embossing powder ever! I need to try other colors of HA powders too! 

Thanks for popping by and have wonderful Easter Sunday!

Concord & 9th Butterfly

Hi friends, Happy Easter!

Easter means free days from work and extra time for playing with stamps from my SSS haul a couple of weeks ago... I restrained myself from buying craft goodies from the beginning of January to the end of March but I don't think if it necessarily was a good thing -3 long months to have a look of everything you WILL buy when you shop again. ;) Anyway, the gorgeous Butterfly Beauty stamp set by Concord & 9th was one of those sets that found it's way to my shopping basket and today is my first time using it in a card. I used all the large 3 butterfly stamps on top of each other. The two bottom layers I stamped with Distress Inks and water (using MISTI let me stamp as many times I wanted to build up color) and the top layer I did with white pigment ink for a short of "ghosted" look. I added white gel pen dots. The splatters are made with DI:s, splatter stamp and water -I find this much easier and faster than using paintbrush. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. Do click the first photo larger to see all the details of the butterfly. She is very pretty, what a stamp!

I'd like to enter:

Where Creativity meets C9: One Layer. Flat cards (where one card panel is glued to a card base like in my card) also allowed! 

CASE This Sketch

Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark

(white gel pen)

Thanks for popping by!

Spring/Easter Cards with Pia and Marina Post 4/4

Hi friends! 

Today is the final day when I'm posting spring and Easter-inspired cards with Pia and Marina. We swapped 3 card making kits and today we share cards made with the leftovers, combining materials from all the three kits. To be honest I'm only combining materials from different kits in my bird card, the egg-tag card is made entirely of stuff I sent. :) Also, I used all materials in Pia's kit for making three cards (+ ruining one stamped image...) for yesterday's post so what you are looking at the birdcard is materials from my kit and from Marina's kit. 

The bird card

I decided to have a little bit fun with the bird die cut from Marina's kit! I think the original look is an elegant looking dove or a swallow maybe... But I'm afraid inking her up with "paradise bird" colors and even adding a googly eye and a die cut bow may have made her loose some of the elegance in the process. :) The die cut frame comes also from Marina's kit. The sentiment and dotty paper come from the kit I sent. 

You Crack Me Up Card

This stamped image-sentiment combo was kind of an "extra" in my kit -I added it just for fun. It was just for a laugh but I did decide I wanted to use it for real! The easiest way was to cut it to a tag and make a simple CAS card with it. I love this layout with the angled layer on the base card and want to use it a lot in the future! Also loving the copper glitter card in my tag frame + all the shine from the die cut border that was part of my kit.

All and all you've seen 10 spring/Easter cards from me this week... Thank you all who had the energy and time to have a look at them and even comment! This was again an amazingly fun swap. Thank you girls! 

I hope you'll now head on over to Pia's and Marina's blog for more inspiration... I can't wait to see how the girls used their leftovers! 

Quick Christmas Card for Challenges

Hi friends!

I'm bombing you with posts (will be back in 3 hours with some scheduled kit swap Easter cards...) but I wanted to get this second entry of mine to this weeks Less Is More online when there's still some challenge left!

 Springtime can be very unpredictable in Finland and yes -last night there came some snow. Gooosh! The sun is shining warmly now so it's all melting away but the snow anyway inspired me to continue with my attempt to be ready with my Christmas cards on time this year. The sentiment stamp is Finnish for "Merry Christmas" and I've used image stamps by Hero Arts. I love the Scandinavian look of these small stamps and can already think many ways to use theses. Before stamping the images I masked the curved edge and sponged some grey ink on the card. After stamping I used white gel pen for adding dots to the background filling in empty spots. 

The challenges I'm entering:

Less Is More : One Layer Curve

Freshly Made Sketches

A Blog Named Hero: April Challenge, Anything Goes with Hero Arts

a2z Scrapbooking April: Getting to Know You

I'm very much into Hero Arts Christmas stamps at the moment! Definitely my favorite Holiday stamps in my stash! 

Thanks for popping by and have a wonderful Easter! 

Spring/ Easter Cards with Marina and Pia Post 3/4

I'd like to enter the bunny card above to:

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Hip Hop

AAA cards: Shiny Spring (my bow is winked up and super shiny!)

Stamping Sensations: Anything goes (my 3rd and therefore final entry!)

Hi friends!

Today is day 3 out of 4 days of Spring/ Easter cards with Marina and Pia! Pia sent the materials for today's cards and you can see the photo of the kit in the end of this post. I made very simple cards from her materials and pretty much "killed" the kit, not many leftovers... However tomorrow we are sharing cards with the leftovers mixing up materials from all the kits so do pop by then to see what I came up with!

The first card of this post might be my favorite from all the kit cards this time. I love the black and white with the pop pf yellow and the very CAS look pleases my eye too! I think a certain someone will end up finding this on his desk when Easter is here. :) Anyhoo, these cards are pretty simple and I believe you can guess how I made them -however if you have questions, just leave a comment! 

Now head on over to Marina's and Pias for definite wow-factor. :) 

I'd like to enter the flower panel card above to CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Rainbows

Spring/Easter Cards with Marina and Pia Post 2/4

Hi guys!

It's day 2 out of the 4 days with Spring/Easter cards with me, Marina and Pia! We have made a small kit swap and today we are sharing cards made with materials by me. I wanted to send a colorful, funny kit that had a little retro vibe to it. The stamped flower images are by PTI and the sentiments + chick/egg images are by Avocado Arts, a company that unfortunately no more runs. 

I made 3 "official" cards with my materials and if you come back on Thursday when we are sharing cards made with the leftovers, you'll see (at least...) one more card. These cards are pretty self-explanatory... I used Copics for coloring + did a lot of die cutting. If you want to hear more details of the dies or something, just leave a comment! Now I hope you'll head on over to Marina's and Pia's for guaranteed inspiration! :) 

CAS One Layer

Hello friends! Here's my weekly offering for Less Is More: One Layer Week: Curve

I'd also like to enter the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge: Create a Scene

My scene only involves a snow bank an a night sky so I do admit it's on the boring side when it comes to scenes... Just remove my card from the gallery if this is way too simple! I hope to come up with a better scene before the challenge closes. :)

Anyway, I made a very quick CAS card:

-masked the snowbank using a SSS snowbank die

-sponged three shades of blue and green inks for Lapland inspired night sky

-added some extra texture to the sky part with Marianne Design bg stamp using white pigment ink, barely visible in the photo but nice, subtle look IRL

-die cut the stitched curve with the matching SSS die

-gold heat embossed the Finnish Christmas sentiment 

No embellies, no nothing. :)

Thanks for popping by! 

Spring/Easter Cards with Marina and Pia Post 1/4

Hi friends!

The next 4 days you'll be seeing lots of cards made by me, Marina  nd Pia. We've done a small Spring/Easter kit swap and are beginning with sharing cards made by materials Marina sent. On our fourth day we will share cards mixing up the leftovers from all the 3 kits -if there is any leftovers that is! :) 

Marina sent us super cute images by Neat & Tangled and naturally I wanted to color them with Copics. Other materials I used from the kit are the die cut shapes in the first card and I've also used Marina's enamel dots in both cards. Her washi tape and one doily I ended up ruining when trying to figure out what to make with my Easter girls and bunnies... But let's see what I'll post with the other leftovers on Thursday! :)

My first card uses the sketch at Seven Hills Craft April Challenge. 

And here's a look of the goodies Marina sent:

If you want to hear more details/have questions of the cards I made, leave a comment! Thanks for popping by! Now head on over to see what Marina and Pia made, I'm sure you'll be inspired. Tomorrow we'll be back sharing cards made with materials by me. :)